CM visits SSKM, discusses better patient care services, tout-free hosp

Kolkata: Enhancing patient care services, rooting out touts from the campus, restricting patient referral, improving overall cleanliness and hygiene inside wards as well as on the campus: These were topics discussed at a Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) meeting that chief minister Suvendu Adhikari convened at the state-run SSKM Hospital on Thursday evening.This was Adhikari’s second visit to SSKM Hospital after assuming office as the Bengal’s chief minister. The first visit was on May 15, when he held a brainstorming session with principals and MSVPs of medical colleges in Kolkata on improving healthcare services and academic activities at the institutes.The Thursday meeting was specific to issues pertaining to SSKM Hospital that saw the highest patient footfall among all other govt health facilities in the state, said an official. “Improving patient facilities, enhancing medical care, ways of achieving zero-refusal, a tout-free campus, strengthening the emergency unit and keeping the hospital clean were among the key issues discussed at the meeting that lasted around an hour,” he said.Apart from the SSKM director, the institute’s MSVP, students’ representatives and principal health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam were among those who attended the RKS meeting.Other medical colleges and teaching institutes, such as ID Hospital Beleghata, already held their RKS meetings after the new govt was formed. There, local MLAs attended the meetings. Adhikari is the MLA of Bhowanipore, under which SSKM Hospital is located. “It was like any other RKS meeting. The only difference was that CM was part of it. With the chief minister’s involvement, we are hopeful for more development in terms of infrastructure and equipment at this institute,” said an insider.SSKM receives a daily average footfall of around 10,000 patients at the OPDs. Being the busiest state medical institute in the state with a high number of specialties, patient grievances are also high, given the patient load. Patient refusal, touts fleecing patients on the pretext of ensuring a bed, long waiting time for investigative tests are among the common grievances.IPGMER is also the only government institute in Bengal that conducts heart and liver transplant surgeries apart from other regular and routine surgeries. It also houses the largest and the state’s only level-one trauma care unit. SSKM has expanded its services from its annex units, such as Shambhunath Pandit Hospital and Kolkata Police Hospital. The hospital also operates ‘Ananyo’ a second unit of the Woodburn ward, exclusively for private patients.Hospital insiders said Adhikari indicated all development projects, like the Cancer Care Hub, would continue uninterrupted. “With the same govt in the Centre and the state, we are hopeful of central aid being implemented without any hassles, which in turn, will help improve patient care services,” said a senior faculty member.